"You're sayin' this like I'd know what it means," she sighed, leaning back into the couch and staring at the ceiling, her eyes tracing the soft lines on it, trying to distract herself from her obvious frustration.
"Well, we'd have to go back to the beginning, or well, the condensed version of the beginning," he started, obvious displeasure coated his voice like cheap vending machiene candy, "but I request that you please keep in mind that I never really wanted to talk about all of this."
He sat up in the couch more, his gaze still fixed out the window, as if looking at her would be painful, "There was twelve of us, you know that much already, but we were starkly divided. You see, it was a weird sort of division between us all, because though we should have been bonded by what we were, there could be nothing farther from the truth."
She couldn't stop herself from thinking that now she was about to unlock his tragic back story and she wasn't completely sure she was ready for all of that. Though Darius often played like a cliche mysterious man from a 90's anime, she knew that there was more to him than all of that. The thought that she'd have to deal with this information and change how she percieved him was a little daunting.
"Though the more bitter of us all would like to claim that is was all of us divided in half, I would say that it was more like four against eight. That sounds like a large number, but it wasn't. You see, your father was apart of the four," he thought, "there was him, The Orphaner Dualscar, The Grand Highblood, and Her Imperious Condescension, but we refer to her as The Condescension or The Condese for time's sake. The fourth of the party was The Executioner, also known as Darkleer, but by the end of it he redeemed himself," he furrowed his brows, "as you see this get's very complicated very fast. It was a game between us all. Your father, Highblood, and Condese wanted to subjugate the rest of us and therefore subjugate the people who looked up to us. They were consumed with the idea of ultimate power over everything where as the rest of us were not," he glanced over at Cronus to see if she was following and she nodded back at him when she realized he was staring, "we generally believed in leaving humanity as it is and living how we pleased, not treating human beings like cattle and other demons as filth," he laughed a bit, "if you think me removing a man's heart is harsh, you would faint at the ideas that they had for society."
Cronus was beginning to form a picture in her mind of these people, the two others that were in this coalition besides her father. She could only imagine how bad they must be, for Dualscar still haunted her dreams on occasion.
"You see, there was a distant part of the four, who was not on our side," he motioned to himself, what he must have been referring to the "good" side, "but yet not on their side either. She was dangerous for us all, but Dualscar loved her. Her name was Mindfang, The Marquise, and she had what I consider a power that none of us deserved," he shooked his head, as if he had strange feelings tied up into it, "she could use mind control, a petty testament to her name. They did not last. You see, Cronus, if you think I am possessive," he chuckled in dark humor, "you must have never seen that side of your father. Demons, we don't conform to those ideals of love that you humans do. The idea is preposterous. Dualscar did though, in a strange way. It was less about love and more about ownership. No one could own Mindfang. She flaunted her other relationships in his face," he screwed his face up, "even ours."
Cronus gasped slightly, this story was a lot more scandalous than she had previously thought it would be, "You were in a relationship with Dualscar's girlfriend? Chief, listen that jus' ain't right."
He shook his hand at her slightly, "No, it was. They did not have a monogamous relationship, Cronus. Monogamy is a human construction. Their relationship is something we describe as black, a sort of hate relationship. It was supposed to be built out of mutual respect and black feelings. Your father had all of that for her, but he also wanted to own her."
Cronus was completely amazed by this story, shocked to say the very least, "A'ight, a'ight, I sorta get it. Move on with it, lovey," she said, motioning for him to continue.
"So, me and Mindfang had quite the relationship," he sighed, "but it wasn't completely mutual at all fronts," he groaned, giving her a side look and finally using a word that he had refused to use for himself out of pride and having much better words for it, "you may see me as a hedonist, but there are many sides to that coin Cronus."
She was giddy that he had finally admitted in a sideways manner that he was in fact a hedonist. Next, she had to get him to admit that he kept blood in his wine in order to hide his consumption from her.
"Mindfang did whatever made her happy. She was the center of the universe, even when other people were hurt because of it. She used her mind control on me multiple times, even going so far to have be do things that I don't really remember to her in front of Dualscar in order to spite him," he looked at his hands, obviously uncomfortable with the lack of control he had over himself at this point and time in his life, "she would do anything to get a rise out of that man. Eventually, it lead to me being a target for his anger. I escaped the relationship, but I'm not really sure how I escaped with my life."
"Okay, so how does all this shit come around to the Conda-whatever she's called?" Cronus rushed him and Darius raised his hand up to silence her.
"Patience. This all comes back around. Dualscar had become irrationally enraged at this point, which is saying something considered he was easy to anger to begin with. He sought out retribution for Mindfang which took him to Highblood," he swallowed deeply, shifting uncomfortably, "please understand that my language might be colorful but that's because you cannot begin to comprehend the horrors that he committed on a daily basis. Highblood was a beast, even in demon terms. He came straight out of Dante's Inferno," Cronus was very glad that Darius had required her to read his favorite classic literature at this point, she supposed that it was only because he wanted her to be able to understand everything he had to say, "he would tear people apart. I'm being serious, Cronus. He would take a leg in each hand and," he made a motion with his hands as if he was ripping paper, "and he would paint his walls with their blood. The smell was disgusting, revolting, and he loved every little bit of it. He took great pleasure back in the day when devil worshippers would sacrifice virgins. Cronus, virgins don't even have any special properties," he seemed to be trying very hard to convey how horrible it was to her, but she wasn't exactly sure she could completely understand, "he just wanted to have them because he thought they might feel pain more."
"So, obviously, Dualscar had lost his fucking mind," Darius emphasised, usually not using such colorful language, "if he felt as if the only retribution Mindfang deserved was becoming Highblood's new play thing. Highblood and The Condense already had interest in her because she was our version of a pirate. She was a magnificent thief, she was a charmer, and she lived off of taking from their resources. She didn't even do it because she was with the rebellion, she did it because it pleased her," he stood and motioned for Cronus to follow him to their kitchen as he spoke, "so Dualscar thought entering Highblood's place of sadistic pleasures was going to end quite well for him. It did not."
He grabbed a bottle of wine and popped the cork, pouring it into a wine glass and watching the red slide against the glass, "He attempted to tell Highblood where Mindfang was, but Highblood had other ideas," he sat the wine bottle down and picked up his glass and took a deep drink.
Cronus sat in one of the tall bar chairs across from Darius as he leaned on the counter. She was completely silent, enthralled with the story that she was being told. She had always known that Darius was hiding things from her, but she could have never imagined it would be anything like this at all.
"Highblood had gotten wind of your father's and Mindfang's relationship, which was counted as deep treason to The Condense. Highblood himself did not care about their relationship, but the fact Dualscar was now open game to him deeply pleased him. Dualscar had always disgusted Highblood. Highblood considered Dualscar to be pretentious and fake, hiding his demonic desires behind money and jewels," he looked into the wine glass, "Dualscar ended up escaping, obviously," he motioned to Cronus's existence as proof of that, "but here's where the water get's even more muddied."
"You see, Dualscar had always pursued Her Imperious Condescension in red romance," he swished the wine in his glass as he thought of a way to explain it, "sort of like what you would consider regular romance to be. The Condescension never accepted his love, or attraction, or whatever words you would use to describe his feelings," he looked at Cronus again, understanding that this must be very confusing to follow, "but she was enraged by his betrayal. She's been playing the long game while she busied herself with other matters, but she's still out to punish Dualscar for his misdeeds. She won't see hurting him physically as enough, she's going to try and get to you to get to him," he downed the whole glass one wine in one quick drink, proceeding to begin and pour himself another one, "and Dualscar is going to see this as an act of war. It isn't really about you per say, but about what you represent to them both."
"So, what are we gonna do?" she questioned, her voice soft.
She was in the middle of a war that wasn't her own, that she had been born into, and suddenly her life had begun to feel very unfair. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself on the inside. She felt as if her gut was shivering, a deep emptiness began to eat away at her from her stomach outwards. Darius got another glass and moved around the room to fish out a different bottle of wine. He poured her a glass from the new bottle and gave it to her. This was obvious confirmation that he kept blood in his regular wine if he had to pour her wine from a different bottle than hers but she didn't say anything about it.
"Take a drink," he reached across the counter and touched her hand lightly, "I think you require it."
She took a drink, soon drinking the whole thing down without much of a word. He poured her another glass silently before starting up again, "Well, we're going to go among friends, even though I haven't seen them in," he paused and seemed to do some mental calculations, "probably in about a hundred and fifty years, give or take."
This caused Cronus to take a large gulp of wine, trying to drown herself beneath the strange warmth that settled in her throat.
"I haven't seen them because," he shifted his weight, uncomfortable with whatever he was admitting, "well, Cronus, after me and Mindfang separated I lost myself a little bit. There's a fine line to enjoying life and destroying yourself with it," he slid her wine glass away from her when she finished it this time, "and I must admit that what they tell you about artists are true. There's an ailment of the mind to some of us and on occasion we can't fight it off."
"But you ain't human," she blurted out.
His lips spread, his fangs showing just slightly, "you see darling, that's probably the problem. The Greek's didn't paint their gods and goddesses as benevolent. They painted them in a way in which they showed every human flaw but even worse," he seemed to think this was funny, but he thought many things were funny that weren't at all, "if a human has one vice I have ten, if a human has ten vices I have one hundred, and I am capable of indulging in all of them at the same time."
Before she could question him about what those vices might be, he avoid the subject and moved on, "but I'm much better now, so I don't fear surrounding myself with them. Signless is currently not available, he's dealing with some of Condesce's forces trying to take over small pieces of land in South Africa. He's going to meet us in France," he seemed very excited by this, though Cronus wasn't surprised because Darius was a fashion designer after all, "so we better get to packing."